Banning rappers is a bad idea, and the state should fight drug culture rather than youth culture, Vladimir Putin has said, weighing in on the scandal over some Russian rap gigs, canceled for their links to narcotics and violence.

The Russian president on Saturday warned against attempts to ban and prosecute rappers, describing such measures as "the least effective, the worst ones anyone could come up with."

"The effect of them would be opposite to the desired one," Putin said.

Comment: Putin has learned the lesson of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, some Russians haven't, in addition to practically everyone on the Left in the Western world...

Putin delivered the remarks during a meeting of the presidential council on culture in St. Petersburg, where rap culture, which has recently been a hot topic in Russia, was one of the topics. Over the past few months, Russia's authorities have canceled several concerts featuring the genre at the last minute, justifying it by the artists' promotion of drugs, obscene language and insinuations of a need for violence.

But the debate didn't end there. Rap culture - extremely popular among Russia's youth - is based on "sex, drugs and general protest against everything," one of the council's members, Igor Matvienko, said. A producer and composer, he is behind many Russian pop-music bands, some of which are active since the early 1990s.

To this Putin responded: "Drugs raise the most concerns, naturally, since it's the surest way to the nation's decline."

If they like that stuff abroad - God help them, they can do anything they want. We here should reflect on how to organize our work to prevent this.

Speaking at a meeting with cultural advisers at the Kremlin on December 15, Putin said the music should not be banned but controlled.

"If it is impossible to stop, then we must lead it and direct it," Putin was quoted by Russian media as saying at the meeting.

His comments come amid a wave of cancellations of concerts by popular artists who commentators say are channeling the political and economic frustrations of young Russians.

The crackdown has evoked Soviet-era censorship of the arts.

Yeah, sure. But it wasn't so long ago that great bastion of democracy - the USA - banned music for similar reasons:

The 1978 Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica Foundation established that the FCC had the power to regulate the broadcast of content considered "indecent" on terrestrial radio and television.

In 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), founded by Tipper Gore, published the "Filthy Fifteen"-a list of fifteen songs it deemed to be the most objectionable due to their references to drugs and alcohol, sexual acts, violence, or "occult" activities.

In 1948, Memphis police confiscated records from stores and destroyed those they considered obscene. In 1952 the Weavers were blacklisted for their political beliefs. Cleveland banned rock concerts in 1965. The BBC banned Sgt. Pepper's in 1967, and Jimi Hendrix in 1969. Nixon censored songs about drug use. The BBC again banned songs deemed too 'sensitive' for the Gulf War in 1991 (including Lennon's "Imagine", The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" and Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight"). Clear Channel recommended a post-9/11 song ban (again including "Imagine", in addition to Rage Against the Machine).